The DQYDJ Weekender (Week of 4/23/12)

If you haven’t heard my dreary baritone rambling about stuff slightly less nerdy than on this site (and if you have please click-through anyway) go listen to this week’s Worst of the Free Financial Advisor podcast. I promise it is interesting enough to listen to while reading financial links!

The Financial God had a nice piece on Automated Cars. If you’re fascinated by inane things like traffic, read about traffic jams some time. You’ll learn all sorts of cool stuff like ‘accident ghosts’ which allow traffic jams to persist for hours after a crash is cleared.

Free By 50 had an analysis of home energy costs by square footage and date of construction – showing the movement to better efficiency didn’t really start until the 80s. We own a mid-70s house with a number of features which give us confidence in the builder (cement board under the vinyl/foam insulation, R-30 blown in attic insulation in the Bay Area(!), …) and think we’re a little better off than the average 70s house.

At Married With Debt, a guest post analysis of buy and hold investing (from Rob Bennett) which devolved into… something… in the comments. I’ll be following this up as I have a lot to say!

Domninique at Your Finances Simplified has thrown down the credit limit gauntlet. Just because you have it doesn’t mean you have to use it, people. Also, if you can handle an App-O-Rama and better signup bonuses come back to credit cards? Responsible people can follow in his footsteps!

Remember a few months ago we complained about SOPA and PIPA, two poorly considered internet bills which would have had a ridiculous chilling effect on free speech on the internet (and that’s not hyperbole…)? Keep your eye on CISPA, which just moved through the House of Representatives. Roughly, one section in CISPA grants automatic immunity for any organization or corporation to volunteer private information to another entity or Government agency. Read the CNet FAQ on CISPA for more details.

Why does this matter? Well, the word ‘notwithstanding’ means that any information which is digitized can be passed along for ‘cyber security’ reasons. What is ‘cyber security’? Your guess is as good as mine – that phrase isn’t well defined. Doesn’t it seem like a pretty blatant violation of the fourth amendment? Expect more of this crap winding through Congress until we actually, you know, vote a few of these idiots out.

Comments

That post from Financial God was great. Regarding the Buy and Hold Myth, yeah, that comment thread turned into something interesting. Rob is very passionate about his cause, and will be speaking at FINCON 12.

It’s a shame that people can’t stick to debating the issue and not the messenger, even going so far as to ask me to censor my own site like SOPA was in effect.Thanks for the mention. Can’t wait to read your take on the issue.

that comment thread turned into something interesting.
I just saw this today.

I wish that my fellow bloggers were not so reluctant to discuss the process side of the investing debate. I agree that it is the content side that matters most. But the process side matters too and the biggest reason why we continue to see the nasty stuff is that people who don’t like it don’t speak up in opposition to it.

There’s also an important sense in which the process issues overlap with the content issues. Say that I am right in my claim that there is 30 years of academic research showing that Buy-and-Hold cannot work in the long term. If that’s so, why is it that there are still millions who believe in Buy-and-Hold?

It’s because of these process issues. For stock prices to go to three times fair value, there has to be a Social Taboo that discourages people from talking about the realities out of deference to the feelings of those who are trying to ignore the realities. The craziness that you see in those comments is just illustrating how that Social Taboo evidences itself in a world in which we have the internet and some (me!) don’t go along with the social convention of keeping any mention of the dangers of Buy-and-Hold hushed up.

I am grateful both to you, John, and to PK for taking the content issues seriously and exploring them a bit. I of course understand that neither of you is in full agreement with me and I of course think that is 100 percent fine. You’re helping people come to their own informed takes by putting the issues out before them.